Battering
by Angelfirenze
Summary: This couldn't be real. It couldn't, but here were Shannon and Kelly, whole -- solid, not reduced to bloody little...dear God... early S2/immediately post-Conqueror of Shamballa
1. Prologue

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** This couldn't be real. It couldn't, but here were Shannon and Kelly, whole -- solid, not reduced to bloody little...dear God...

**Notes:** I came up with this a few days ago and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for NaNoWriMo but I can still attempt this, regardless.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Beta:** **D.M**** Evans**

Prologue: Post-Traumatic Stress

_I guess Elysia and her mom came by... - Scieszka, to Winry Rockbell, before the grave of Brigadier General Mäes Hughes_

Ed and Al watched in horror as a bedraggled woman they recognized far too well fell out of the replica of Al's suit, holding a sobbing little girl and an old bouquet of flowers that had obviously just been replaced. Before he could think, Ed dashed forward and pulled Gracia and her daughter up, babbling apologies before he could even discern the words that made them.

"H-how did you get in there?" Ed asked, pointing wide-eyed at both as Al kept his wits enough to help them to their feet. "It's bad enough Al snuck in!"

"We didn't sneak _anywhere_, Edward," Gracia corrected, helping Al brush the dust and grass off herself and Elysia's clothing and skin. "Unlike Alphonse and yourself, we have no idea where in the world we are."

"But we don't..." Ed trailed off and sighed, choosing instead to marvel at not just a familiar-looking face, but a real person from his real past. It felt like home and even though he knew what he'd given up, he knew he'd never stop missing that feeling.

Gracia looked at Ed, startled to see him after so long, and then automatically turned her attention to her little girl, rocking her close and shushing her before disbelieving eyes fell on Ed again.

"You...you're alive, Edward," she whispered, her eyes then landing on Al, a helpless laugh falling from her before she knew it. "I should have known you two would find your way back to each other. You're worse than Roy. You do sound different, though. Your accent's changed."

Ed resisted the urge to scowl at the mention of any resemblance to Mustang when he suddenly took notice of their true surroundings. There _were_ military officers on all sides of them, but none of them were dressed in German militarial uniforms, nor were they speaking German, but what he now knew to be their other native tongue from Amestris, English.

"On order of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, you are hereby ordered to stand down," a brown-haired man was barking at Ed, careful to keep his gun trained away from either Gracia or Elysia. "Step away from the -- "

"DiNozzo, stand down," said a quiet voice that, for some reason, made Gracia's breath hitch.

"Boss, he -- "

"Agent DiNozzo, I order you to _stand down_!" the voice barked, causing Elysia to whimper in Gracia's arms and she held her closer. "She knows him, he's no threat. Neither of them are."

Gibbs' steady grip on his gun didn't falter but he'd lowered it himself, his eyes wide with disbelief as he inched closer and closer to the group before him. Elysia, Gracia could see, was staring at him, no longer afraid, her mouth parted slightly as if in fascination.

His heart was pounding so hard, he felt lightheaded but he couldn't allow himself to leave what had to be the best dream of all of them. Sure, she was talking to a couple of kids he didn't know -- he could read them from a mile away, they'd each served in some capacity somewhere -- and sure, she was dressed in a way that reminded him of photographs of his mother when he'd been a boy, but she -- they were there. He wasn't going to let this dream go for a second.

"Shannon," he murmured, feeling as though he were shaking all over. "Kelly," Gibbs forced himself to stop.

This couldn't be real. It couldn't, but here were Shannon and Kelly, whole -- solid, not reduced to bloody little...dear God...

**...TBC...**


	2. Untold Stories

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** The blood drained from Ed's face and he slumped forward, staring at his hands. He didn't say anything and Al watched him miserably, knowing they both felt the same.

**Notes:** I came up with this a few days ago and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for NaNoWriMo but I can still attempt this, regardless.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Beta:** **D.M. Evans**

Part I: Untold Stories

_"Sorry, sir, ignore him." - Alphonse Elric, to Corporal Roy Mustang_

Ed and Al sat in the bullpen, Tony, Kate, and McGee flanking them, everyone staring at one another and trying not to focus on the fact that Gibbs had quote-unquote _detained_ Gracia and Elysia in one of the interrogation rooms for reasons he refused to divulge. Gibbs' team was more than used to this but Ed had actually argued with Gibbs, standing as tall as he could and yelling in the other man's face despite Gibbs' icy glare.

Tony and Kate had each found themselves astonished that this _kid_ wasn't backing down from a fight -- a fight with Gibbs, no less. Gibbs who had just beaten Tony to a pulp, practically (or at least that's how he'd felt...damned suspects, resisting arrest...) less than a week ago, Tony still left feeling it even now. So much to marvel at, so little explanation.

Ed huffed yet again, finding new and improved ways to cross his arms irritably as Al simply sat across from him, unable to let his confusion dampen his brilliant mood at _finally_ being reunited once more.

"I'm sure they're fine, Brother," Al attempted to reassure yet again, but Ed -- as usual -- ignored him in favor of further refining his brooding skills. "He acted like he knew them as well as we do and he was so gentle with Elysia."

"It's got to be a damned act!" Ed snapped, flinging his arms outward, which Al automatically ducked. Ed began swearing in German and Al frowned, giving him a very disapproving look.

"I have no idea what you're saying, but I'm absolutely certain Mom wouldn't like it, Ed. Please stop."

At this mention of their mother, Ed deflated, kicking the drawers of the desk he sat beneath, producing an echoing metallic sound with his automail. "I know." It was the closest he ever came to apologizing and Al took it for the olive branch it was.

"Your prostheses," Kate ventured, trying not to infuriate the kid further and get smacked with his metal hand. "Those are -- "

"Automail," Ed snapped, flinging his hand forward slightly, wishing he had his gloves back. "Got a problem?"

"I don't even know what that is," Kate snapped back, tired of this brat and his attitude. "Far be it for me to ask a question!"

Al sighed and turned to face them, carefully showing them his flesh hands and one of his legs. "He's like that with everyone, he doesn't mean any harm. He's quick to anger, you might say, but it goes away just as easily. Let's just say I'm here, in the flesh, because Ed doesn't have his."

He didn't let on that he was really meant to be seventeen or that he didn't know where on earth in the timeline they'd even landed, since it obviously wasn't Germany both from his viewpoint and Ed's description.

"Where are we, out of curiosity?" Al asked, looking around the bullpen yet again. He knew from what Ed had told him that technology had gone on a different track, as Dad had said -- no. He couldn't think about Dad yet. Or Envy or the portal or Wrath or General Mustang or -- no. He had to focus for now, pull himself together.

Kate watched the younger kid shudder, forcing himself not to think about something that question had brought up, and wondered if she even wanted to answer it for him. He looked close to tears already and everyone in the circle had two things in common: they had no idea what was going on, and no idea what would happen.

"You're in Washington, D.C.," Kate ventured gently, surprised to see a flinch of recognition in the older boy, whose mouth fell open again and he stared around at them all.

"We're in America? Is Dr. Albert Einstein here, I -- I'd love to talk to him! Or J. Robert Oppenheimer -- their _theories_ -- !"

Kate felt her feet give out from under her and was thankful someone (probably McGee) had the wherewithal to shove her chair back under her. Between watching one of those Gates she'd always thought were campfire stories open up right in front of her, dropping four people into NCIS' front yard and finding out this kid was supposed to have known some of the premiere scientists in history, talking about them like they were colleagues and not simply sought-after heroes, this was all a bit much.

It was strange that the fact that the Elrics didn't know what year they were in felt the least off-putting.

"Uh, kid," Tony said, surprisingly carefully for him given that he sounded as astonished as the rest of them felt. "Albert Einstein died in 1955, and -- uh, I could look the rest of those guys up for you on...well, I guess you wouldn't know what the 'net _is_, now, would you?" Tony ran his hand through his hair. This was all so _weird_, which was saying a lot. "Damn."

The blood drained from Ed's face and he slumped forward, staring at his hands. He didn't say anything and Al watched him miserably, knowing they both felt the same.

"It was 1923 in Munich, Germany," Ed said quietly, clenching his hands into fists. "And at _home_, it was the Continental Calendar Year 1921 -- Eckart tried to destroy my whole world. We had to close the Gate! We _haven't_ -- "

Ed kicked the desk again, whipping around to face Al. "You said Mustang was closing the Amestris side, but we haven't closed ours! We _have_ to figure it out!"

Ed jumped down, throwing his coat back on, but then he noticed Al hadn't moved.

"Alphonse, what the hell are you standing around for!"

"Ed, they've done something with one of those boxes there." Al narrowed his eyes at McGee's screen, noticing his fingers were moving fast, his box's window filling with the most pictures, and got up to go look over the rather jumpy and uptight agent's shoulder.

"Look, Brother." He pointed to McGee's screen, Eckart clearly visible. "That woman's face is in that window. It says she's missing -- we know her body's right downstairs, but they're all looking up everyone you named when they first brought us here. They're all dead. They're all gone, Ed. Er, what year _is_ it, if it's not 1923?"

Kate let McGee field the answer since he was the only one that hadn't had the chance to be snapped at by _this_ particular temper. "Uh, um, it - it's 2002, actually. Nearly eighty years after you seem to have needed to be."

"WHAT?" An unnerved Ed turned and threw himself forward on McGee's desk, watching him pull up tab after tab after tab of searches.

"Yes, uh, Ed -- Al, the people you mentioned...Dr. Karl Haushoffer, born in 1869, died in 1946," McGee translated decisively. "Your Dietlinde Eckart is downstairs in our morgue, but it says she went missing back in 1923, the year you thought it was...so, she was the first..."

Tony and Kate shared a look that Ed missed, glaring at all the information being thrown at him, but Al hadn't, seeming to file the information away for later.

McGee moved back from his desk to face them both, a concentrated frown on his face as he began to consider everything so far. "I can tell you now that Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in 1945 and Rudolf Hess died in prison in 1987 after being convicted of war crimes during the war -- the Second World War, for us -- you were, as you say, trying to prevent."

Ed slid off the desk and fell to the floor, unsure of whether to laugh or cry. They'd missed it but did he really want to know how many people had died in the process? Couldn't he have -- couldn't they have _done_ something?

Ed's automail hand slammed against the desk again, this time leaving a sizeable dent.

"Ed," Al reminded, a mixture of comfort and reprimand in his voice. "That's not our property and we can't do alchemy to fix it here, right?"

Ed's hair flicked sideways in disregard, his nose and gritted teeth the only things visible. Then, with a vicious grin on his face, he swore again in German and shot up, turning to kneel down on the floor. "Equivalent exchange," he muttered, slashing his left palm open on the edge of the desk and letting the blood begin to flow from the cut before pushing Al's legs out of the way.

Alphonse figured out what Ed was going to do only moments before resounding bangs began coming from the desk and Gibbs' team all jumped up to see what the hell was happening.

"Ed, no, don't!"

"Hey, kid, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

They were yelling at him to stop, obviously, their voices blending together in a senseless cacophony as he did what he needed to do. This was far more important than decorum or protocol.

The desk Ed was pounding was now very much ruined as he punched it until an actual hole had been created.

"Equivalent exchange!" he yelled, tilting back and clapping his hands before pressing them against the destroyed furniture.

A bright aquamarine light surrounded his bloodstained hands and suddenly the desk was like Ed had never touched it.

Ed grinned, a cocky laugh leaving him before he could stop it.

"Alchemy," Al whispered, his arm now around his brother's shoulder.

**...TBC...**


	3. Shattered Pieces

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** Agent Gibbs was sitting across from her, bent over in his chair, his hands clenching his previously meticulous hair, tears falling onto the table beneath him, his breaths deep, long, shuddering.

**Notes:** Let's just say the national languages of Amestris are equivalents of German, English, and in the case of the Ishvalans, a hybrid of Hebrew and possibly Hindi or even a dead language like Sumerian or Phrygian, but most, particularly the children, were forced (after the now-reversed decree of nnexation of Ishval into Amestris) to learn English and German by order of Führer King Bradley.

Since Al's never spoken undiluted German, he wouldn't understand everything Ed was saying. *inches away from possibly feeble explanation*

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Beta:** **D.M. Evans**

Part II: Shattered Pieces

_Alchemy can give us all sorts of abilities. This is one of mine... - Alphonse Elric_

Gibbs didn't really enjoy the state of speechlessness, usually. It doesn't happen often at all, he's usually ready for anything at any given moment.

But what in the hell could have prepared him for this?

Shannon -- Gracia -- that was her name now, damn it -- she was sitting across from him, nervously glancing back and forth between himself and a blithely coloring...Elysia, who was only six years old now, a year less than before -- humming to herself as she switched from green to pink, drawing a tongue on the dragon or...something she'd surrounded by rudimentary transmutation circles.

Shannon was looking at him with unease, her entire being tense. He couldn't blame her, he just couldn't seem to open his mouth and _talk_.

He was afraid that if he did, either they'd dissipate and he'd wake up, cold sweat sliding down his face and back, mingling with tears he could taste all too vividly, struggling not to bring his hands to his face and simply scream.

He was scared he might vomit.

He was petrified he'd do something, _anything_ and this won't be his reality anymore. He's doubly frightened that it already isn't and...the idea of homunculi doesn't actually unnerve him anymore. He's shot more than a few, even worked missions where he's personally handled some part of the original being.

That...Gracia...and -- Elysia could be homunculi...his gut told him they were one-hundred percent souled humans and he clung to that like the lifeline it was.

Otherwise, he might have had to -- no. No, that was the coward's way out, he felt, in this situation. If someone's screwing with him, by God, he will make them pay and do so dearly.

For now, he concentrated on trying to prise his mouth open and force comprehensible words out.

"Agent -- Gibbs, was it?" Gracia asked, breaking the painful silence Elysia didn't seem to notice (he was very wrong on that count), and his back straightened further, his hands gripping the table so hard it creaked audibly.

"Y-yes, ma'am." His voice was broken (his soul was hemorrhaging, he was so tempted to simply go down to the morgue now and lie down next to Eckard's now solved mystery of a body), he was barely keeping his hands from shaking, too.

"Are we - have we done something wrong? Is there something you need me to tell you?"

Her voice had a new accent to it -- she said Edward Elric sounded strange, but -- Gibbs gave himself an inward shake and returned his attention where it belonged.

"No, no, you haven't. Nothing at all. Done something wrong, I mean."

Gibbs was kicking his own ass on the inside, cursing the fact that he was tripping over his own tongue like a moron. He hasn't ever done this, not even on their first date. He was already a Marine by then.

"Do you know my daddy?" Elysia interjected suddenly, her bright aquamarine eyes (perfect copies of her mother's) landing on his as he felt a lance slice through his heart.

"Who's that?" he asked, managing to still the tremble momentarily and Elysia took a moment to consider.

"Mommy said he had to go into the ground, he's taking a nap forever and ever and I want him to wake up and come home and play with me because he promised after he had his work finished. Daddy has lots of work to do. He..." Elysia's own voice broke and she began to cry, leading Gracia to gather the little girl into her arms, tears of her own sliding down her cheeks and soaking into Elysia's again neatly parted hair.

Gibbs was breathing deeply now, feeling as if all the blood in his body was pooling in his feet.

"Maes has been gone for two years -- two years next month. Elysia was four. I..." Gracia took a deep breath. "He was killed in the line of duty. He was a lieutenant colonel at the time and was promoted to Brigadier General posthumously. I'm almost not sure Elysia will ever stop asking for him. She was so little -- only..."

Gracia gave her own head a small shake and lifted her free hand to wipe her eyes before glancing back at Gibbs and freezing.

Agent Gibbs was sitting across from her, bent over in his chair, his hands clenching his previously meticulous hair, tears falling onto the table beneath him, his breaths deep, long, shuddering.

Without thinking, Gracia reached across the table, her hand landing on his head and then she gasped.

...TBC...


	4. Permutations

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu. Chester Bennington. "Valentine's Day." Minutes to Midnight. Warner Bros., 2007.

**Summary:** Then it was over, as quickly as it had started, and Gibbs was gasping for breath, slumping forward onto the table as tears matching his own stared back at him.

**Notes:** I came up with this at the beginning of November and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for NaNoWriMo but I can still attempt this, regardless.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Betas:** **D.M. Evans**, **tiggpwns**

Part III: Permutations

_You know, years ago, I had a theory on human transmutation. After all we've seen I was actually trying to remember it now. We alchemists are such hopeless, predictable things... - Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang_

Gracia gasped as images and emotions flooded her mind, the strongest being images of both her husbands (for she knew that now. The man in front of her had been her first husband and Elysia's first, _biological_ father, though they'd been Shannon and Kelly Gibbs then and he'd been a sniper in the Marines, away for long but always, always devoted in his returns home) and the differences, but far more the heretofore unrealized _similarities_ in theirs -- and _Roy's_ personalities.

She now remembered her death and that of their child, could feel the overwhelming, almost physically amassed grief Leroy had felt since then. She and Elysia (Kelly) had been one of the larger parts of his soul lost that day. There were -- there were so _many_ of them, it seemed, that the Gate had seen fit to take from him in but an instant.

Or maybe they were just the shared emotions, triumphs, feelings, and other attributes, first seen in this man, that had drawn her to the others...she didn't know...

Her whole body hurt, her arms burning, and she rubbed them feverishly. She glanced at Elysia to see their child still coloring, completely underwhelmed by anything that had happened to them. Perhaps the Gate had protected her, gave her solace while these feelings, sensations, and emotions had played out. She certainly hoped so.

She had died, they had died -- herself and Elysia, or was it Kelly -- and he hadn't been at home. She remembered the searing heat of her body (first _shell_) and Elysia's (_Kelly's_) bodies coming apart before her as though she were watching a movie -- movies, she remembered what those were now.

Fiery gases burning their lungs, engulfing them as they...died...and -- then there was the Gate and they'd gone through it. Hundreds of shadowy black hands, purple eyed little bodies passing them along until they reached the other side of it and she could feel herself _compressing_, molding smaller and smaller until she was a squalling, frightened newborn again, herself.

Kelly -- Elysia -- had stayed behind, sheltered and sleeping within the Gate, watched, waiting as Gracia had grown back into herself. (_Who was Wrath? Why was he so jealous?_) Lived another life. She remembered meeting Mäes, his brilliant smile as she'd bumped into him on the street in Central City one day on her way to one of the library branches.

Leroy's face, smiling dashingly, his Marine uniform pressed and immaculate as he'd grinned, as well -- she remembered thinking later that the shape of his cap had looked ridiculously big on his head but finding it, and him, adorable.

She hadn't known he was a future sniper, then.

Herself marrying Mäes and then their lovemaking, passionate and all-encompassing in its intensity. _Kelly_, ever patient, emerging from the Gate and taking root within herself...Edward and Alphonse and Nina at Edward's (and Elysia's) birthday party as she went into labor, running screaming, scared like the children they were, distracting her from the pain of her labor.

Mäes coming back covered in snow, chilled to the bone, dragging the doctor by one arm...

_Roy_. Roy Mustang, Mäes' best friend, had been her ex-boyfriend, an amiable break-up, though she'd wished they hadn't. He'd gone away to the conflict in Ishval shortly thereafter and part of him had stayed there, the fire he could wield with his fingers dying in his eyes...

Winry's parents, the Rockbells. Roy had killed them, the girl had told Gracia. She could feel her hot tears, her cold ones, as they'd hugged -- both crying and staring at Mäes' picture with Roy on the mantelpiece.

_Mäes, grinning madly, his hat cocked in his friendship and glee. Roy, his face carved in stone, dead inside. Two halves of Leroy's whole._

_Mäes' laugh, his adoration of everyone around him -- Roy's grief over deaths he'd caused, endlessly and ruthlessly devoted to avenging them and rectifying his part in their demise._

_Leroy._

***

Gibbs bit his hand to keep from screaming, his eyes locked on Gracia's as memories not his own (or were they, had they been -- only waiting for him, as Gracia and Elysia had been?) assaulted him from every angle.

A flick of his wrist, a snap of his fingers and he'd blown apart an entire section of a city, his eyes staring into a frightened Ishvalan soldier barely his own age, holding an antiquated rifle, quaking with fear.

The pull of his trigger twice, in quick succession, and a little girl's innocently bystanding parents were facedown in their mingling blood on the floor. The coldness of his pistol against the bottom of his jaw, his entire body quaking equally with determination and overwhelming terror.

_"Was that the kind of devotion you showed when you killed my mom and dad?"_

**Self-disgust.**

His immolation of that poor young bastard at a mere flinch, the screams as the _boy_ died.

Died as Shannon and Kelly, Gracia and Elysia had died and it was by his own hand. It was all swirling together like bloody water down a drain and he felt like he was dying all over again.

**Self-hatred.**

_I was too afraid to end it...Every sane person is..._

Standing before Mäes Hughes' (his _own_) grave, listening to _his daughter_ begging the men with shovels to leave her daddy alone so he could finish his work. He always had so much work to do.

_...And the clouds above move closer, looking so dissatisfied...And the ground below grew colder as they put you down inside, but the heartless wind kept blowing, blowing..._

Gibbs was always at work, tracking, hunting, finding the bastards who destroyed the lives of the innocent he worked so hard to protect...

_So much for making it home in time to kiss my little girl goodnight...We're State Alchemists. Human artillery they roll out when nothing else works...With respect, sir, that's the reasoning of an adult. But those children are still just..._

Who was that? Riza Hawkeye, a sniper -- like _him_. And he -- part of him -- had loved her, known she'd loved him. Been too afraid to get close because she'd only burn in his hands.

Edward and Alphonse Elric. He _knew_ them, had since they were the children Hawkeye had spoken of, Ed's tears and sobs, mixing, drowned in the rain surrounding them the night a father all but killed his own daughter and dog.

They were almost his sons and they'd each watched their own parents die. How did he know that, feel that? Did it matter?

A choked, wet breath rushed out as Gibbs forced himself to sit up, gripping the table and enduring the burning of his tears as his mind watched half of his other self die and take another with it.

_Maybe_ this _is a more fitting end._ Gracia's face smiling gently, hatefully into Mäes Hughes' astonished face as the gunshot rang out and he felt himself fall.

_I'm going to become the Führer, Mäes...Someone who knows_ you_ and the State and supports you from the inside...Killed in action and promoted two ranks for it. Brigadier General Hughes. I don't know what's more absurd -- you or the State..._

_You know, he gives a lot of orders for an enlisted man..._

Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda...Warrant Officer Vato Falman, Master Sergeant Kane Fuery, Lieutenant Colonel Alex Louis Armstrong...First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye.

_We've been waiting for you, sir. You liar, come back!_

He knew them like he knew his hands, his mind -- they were almost other extensions of himself, they were so close...older children...except for Hawkeye -- from somewhere in time and space, he heard her moan, it mingled with Gracia's and became one...

He gripped the table and tried to train his mind, his bloodflow back upward. He couldn't look at Gracia, not yet. _Elysia!_

_My daughter, who turned three this year -- isn't she adorable!_

_Those children hold the State's future and it's our duty to enable them..._

He exhaled heavily.

Mission accomplished.

Then it was over, as quickly as it had started, and Gibbs was gasping for breath, slumping forward onto the table as tears matching his own stared back at him.

**Overwhelming relief...**

"We've missed you so much," Gracia whispered, her voice hitching slightly.

Gibbs wanted to say, 'And I, you,' but his already uncooperative throat was beyond useless now.

Instead, he simply reached upward and took Gracia's hand, cupping it in his own and bringing it to his lips.

Gracia was struggling not to cry aloud, both of them painfully conscious of Elysia sitting beside them, having stopped coloring to watch _her parents'_ behavior toward one another.

She glanced at her daughter, unable to refrain, and found the little girl smiling brightly, her finished picture cradled in her hands.

"I've got lots of daddies," Elysia said decisively, bringing out a compulsive chuckle in Gibbs as he continued to try to access Gracia's face so he could wipe it with his thumb. "You're all back inside again!"

Gibbs wanted to ask Elysia what she meant but found himself more focused on trying to clean up Gracia's increasingly wet face in lieu of his own.

Gracia, in turn, successfully dodged Gibbs' thumb in order to take his face into her hands and both listened to the scrape of Elysia's chair as she got up and walked all the way around the table to face both of them.

"Welcome home!"

All Gibbs could do then was get up, reach down, and sweep Elysia into his arms. Her familiar scent filled his nose and the first real laugh he'd felt in ages came bursting out of him.

...TBC...


	5. Two Worlds Gone Intertwined

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu. *Slight quote from Hank Venture (The Venture Bros., World Leaders Entertainment, et. al.).

**Summary:** "...Mustang?" Edward said weakly, an infuriated look slamming onto his face a moment later. "You...you...I KNEW! I KNEW IT! AL, GET OVER HERE FOR A MINUTE!"

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Betas:** **D.M. Evans**, **tiggpwns**

**Pairings:** If you didn't understand by now, Gibbs/Gracia (Shannon). Allusions to Ed/Winry; Tony/Abby, Abby/McGee, Tony/McGee; Gracia/Hughes, Gracia/Mustang;

**Note to everyone not ****D.M. Evans**: I like Kate and Tony, I really, really do -- but their behavior toward McGee at times is (in my humble opinion) completely uncalled for and entirely unprofessional. It's despicable to me and I grabbed an opportunity where I saw one.

Part IV: Two Worlds Gone Intertwined

_I may not know much about alchemy, but I_ certainly _know what happens to_ anyone _who commits a Taboo! - Brigadier General Mäes Hughes to Brigadier General Roy Mustang_

"Gibbs is smiling. Gibbs is smiling -- Probie, go find out why Gibbs is smiling."

"No, no!"

"Kate -- "

"Tony, do you want to wake up in the hospital tomorrow?"

"I...it might be worth it -- oh, hey, that Elric snot's saving us the trouble!"

Alphonse turned sharply away from watching Edward stomp over to the Gibbs' and shot Tony a surprisingly withering glare.

"Don't talk about my brother like that."

Al waggled his gloved hands at Tony, who glanced warily at the desk Ed had destroyed and repaired earlier and swallowed audibly.

"Eep," he whispers.

"Did you just say 'eep'?"

"Do you _want_ me to lock you in one of Ducky's morgue cabinets, McGeek?"

Al narrowed his eyes, then, frowning slightly. "Why are you calling him that when he specifically said his name was Agent Timothy Mc_Gee_, not _Geek_, not _McGoogle_, not _Probie_ or any of the other idiotic names I've heard you call him in the short time I've been here?"

Al was still leveling that glare at Tony, who struggled to answer. McGee sighed nervously, a slight smile on his face, as he ran a hand over his crew cut while Kate held back a laugh, herself, only to have Al narrow his eyes at her.

Without warning, Al's right hand closed gently around her wrist and he held on for a few seconds, his already angry young face now even more grim.

"You know perfectly well he never meant to harass you in any way, let alone look up your skirt. He could get two words in if you didn't make an effort to cut him off and make it more difficult. He's not a toy, he's a person. You both take that completely for granted, not to mention you're a couple of bullies."

Kate's own eyes widened then as she tried to explain but Al turned resolutely away from her and left her side to sit closer to McGee.

"You're very good with -- computers, are they?"

"Yes, they are. And it's not much. I've always just fiddled around with stuff," McGee smiled, unable to think of anything to say in thanks to this strange young man who, like Gibbs, actually saw him as more than a walking computer with legs.

Sure, Gibbs had made him prove his worth, but he'd expected that -- and Gibbs had never made McGee feel anything other than human. "When I was in high school, the technician who fixed the school's computers and things just said 'if you mess around enough...'" he shrugged and scooted over so Al could see the screen and keyboard better.

"You should see Abby. She's as good as I am, if not better. There was this one time, all this cool air around us? The machines that cause it had broken down and were being fixed -- we actually ended up needing to go down to Ducky's morgue because computers get overheated and just shut down if they become too hot. While we were down there, someone was hacking -- uh, 'hacking' is when..."

Kate and Tony each stared at one another, completely thrown for a loop.

"We don't _really_..." Kate began, and Tony scoffed.

"Of course not! That Elric kid doesn't know what -- "

"He _held my wrist_, Tony! I've never said anything about any of that. He thinks we're bullies."

Again, DiNozzo tried to shake it off. "He's just some snot-nosed -- "

"That might be what he's getting at, DiNozzo!" Gibbs voice snapped from behind them and both agents jumped, small screams issuing from their mouths before they each covered them. It would have been funny if Gibbs didn't look so furious.

A little ways behind him, Ed stood with Gracia as satisfaction spread over his face and Gracia covered Elysia's ears, with her eyes covered by Ed as insurance just in case her husband decided a few _more easily understood_ words were in order. Sure enough...

"A thirteen-year-old has to tell a couple of grown-assed adults how to behave and you think _he's_ the snot-nosed punk? A thirteen-year-old has to remind the both of you that your fellow agent is not a plaything and that this is not the third-damned-grade?

"DiNozzo, what is Rule Number Nine, that you've been in consistent violation of since McGee _got here_?"

"'Never -- Never Go Anywhere Without a Knife'?" Tony asked, confusion causing him to falter.

"The _other_ Rule Number Nine, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled again and Tony shivered, forced to 'play' along.

"'Your Fellow Agent is Your Family', Boss," Tony made up on the spot. "I -- you never cared before now!"

Gibbs narrowed his eyes in a very un-Gibbs-like fashion, reached up, smacking Tony upside the head and Gracia winced, frowning slightly at her husband's behavior, but understanding the need not to interfere. "Did I ask you what you thought, DiNozzo?"

"No, Boss, you did not," Tony answered, a distressed breath issuing forth.

"Gibbs, Elric -- " Kate began, but then Gibbs rounded on her, this time his voice quiet and her breath caught in her throat.

"Alphonse Elric has more maturity than either of you -- maybe it's because he's lost more, who the hell knows? Alphonse Elric and his brother Edward understand the meaning of 'family' far more than either of you. What is Rule Number Eight, DiNozzo, and while we're at it, you should know these by now, Agent Todd."

"'Never Take Anything For Granted', Boss," Tony recited dismally, gritting his teeth afterward.

"Grow the hell up," Gibbs growled before turning back to face Ed, who was now staring at Gibbs almost in horror, and his family. "You both have better things to do than screw with McGee all damned day."

Tony watched Gibbs walking away, seemingly mustering up his courage and then yelling, "Who are you? Gibbs, did you get concussed again? Since when do you care if we screw with McGee -- and kindly don't ask me to recite Rule Number One; I already know what it is and we _didn't know_ teasing counted as 'screwing', so kindly forgive us!"

Gibbs paused momentarily, taking a very deep breath, before continuing and sitting back down at his desk, leaning back in the chair and wishing dearly for something to set on fire...

"What, Elric!" Gibbs snapped, then, not bothering to turn around or differentiate between the two. They knew which one he meant.

"...Mustang?" Edward said weakly, an infuriated look slamming onto his face a moment later. "You...you...I KNEW! I KNEW IT! AL, GET OVER HERE FOR A MINUTE!"

"Excuse me, McGee," Al grinned at McGee, who grinned back. "Brother's fallen off a tangent and I'm needed. If you have any rope, that'd be helpful, as well."

McGee laughed and turned back to enjoy the show. Or so he thought.

As soon as Al reached Ed's side, Ed began whispering furiously, gesticulating wildly in Gibbs, Mrs. Hughes, and Elysia Hughes's direction.

His eyes were wide and only seconds later, Al's mouth fell open for a second and he whispered something to Gibbs, whose face must've done something McGee couldn't see because Al reached out and gently placed both hands on either of Gibbs' shoulders for about half a minute before relaxing and smiling, looking over at his brother and nodding happily, reaching up and whispering something in Ed's ear that made a grin practically split his older brother's face in half before falling into irritation again.

"So if I get Hughes, I have to get Mustang, too? What a sweetheart deal."

"It's all or nothing, Elric," Gibbs said quietly, but something about his tone was off. "On the bright side, though..."

Gibbs' tone had changed again -- it was something in his inflection...McGee chanced a glance at Kate and Tony, only to find that they'd buried themselves in busywork.

Sighing, McGee waited patiently for Al to return so he could finish introducing the wonderfully bright young man to what was at least _his_ most beloved facet of the modern world, but it seemed that would take a bit.

Elysia, of all people, was now gently prodding Gibbs, Edward, and Alphonse back toward the interrogation rooms. Gracia sighed, a slight smile on her face, and followed, stopping to place a reassuring hand on McGee's own shoulder.

"We'll be right back," she said in a lighthearted manner and he found himself smiling at her, too.

Wherever this Amestris place was, it seemed like the people there were pretty nice. He wondered if there were more of them here, after all, despite everyone always insisting those were just ridiculous ghost stories to scare kids on camping trips and hazing about government conspiracies from older grades and colleagues.

McGee frowned slightly, turning back to his computer. _Hmm. Oh!_

McGee started typing furiously, forgetting all about the scene that had just taken place for the time being. He knew _just_ what would help Al learn programming. Probably.

***

Ed smiled faintly, unable not to as Elysia led himself and Al back to the rooms Agent Gibbs had taken both herself and Gracia to earlier with all the authority a six-year-old could muster.

Once inside, everyone sat at the table before Gibbs jumped back up. "Wait," he said, all traces of either Hughes or Mustang gone for the time being. He reached over to a switch on the wall and flipped it. "This is for our ears only."

Without giving her warning, Ed scooped Elysia up and hugged her, a huge grin on his face as he tickled her momentarily before putting her back down. Then he knelt in front of her. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to come to any of our birthday parties since you were born."

"I know!" Elysia grinned, hugging him tightly and causing him to laugh. "Other Other Daddy let you look for the Philosopher's Stone. You and Big Brother Al were busy making a big mess so Other Other Daddy had to do a lot of cleaning up!"

"We did _not_!" Ed said incredulously, quite appalled at being accused of getting into trouble all over Amestris on _purpose_.

"You did," Elysia said resolutely, turning away from him and Ed shot Gibbs his best scowl.

"You're the one who let us _search_ for it, anyway -- Other, Other Daddy!"

"Yeah, yeah, pipsqueak," Gibbs muttered absently, examining his fingernails and it was all Ed could do not to slap that bored _Mustang_ look off his face. "You've grown, though -- I couldn't see you over my paperwork before. I'll give you that."

"Shut - " Ed took a deep breath. Then another. Then watched with satisfaction as Gracia pinched Agent Gibbs, causing him to grimace slightly.

"Can we get back to business, please, you three?" she asked, not taking her eyes off Agent Gibbs, whose sigh seemed to reverberate.

"What's to tell, Mrs. -- oh, no -- I have no idea what to call you now." Ed moaned, running his automail hand through his hair and pulling the tie from around it, beginning to braid it for the first time in years if only to pass the time.

"Mrs. Hughes would probably be best in public," Gracia said, her hand coming up to touch Agent Gibbs' face. "I haven't been able to be Mrs. Gibbs in a very long time and as far as everyone here knows..."

"Yeah," Ed considered, frowning slightly. "So -- again, what are Brigadier Generals Mustang and Hughes doing inside the single body of Agent Gibbs on this side of the Gate? Why can we suddenly do alchemy -- maybe without our blood, even? Can you do alchemy now that Mustang's there? Are the rest of your team here somewhere? Is...is there record of a Winry Rockbell here anywhere?"

Gibbs flinched slightly but then simply let out a breath. "To answer your questions, kid, I don't know."

"I'm not a kid."

"Be. Quiet."

"You just said you don't know!"

"Ed," Al admonished for the millionth time. "Stop that. We have things to discuss and I can't tell you what else I saw if you won't stop talking. Elysia may know everything I'm going to say because we both spent so long inside the Gate, but the rest of you don't. We need to be on an even keel, here. Equivalent Exchange is our promise, remember?"

Ed sighed, deciding for Al, Gracia, and Elysia's sakes not to give Gibbs any dirty looks.

"Equivalent..." Gibbs started, but then his eyes darken and he began to recite it himself, "To create, something of equal value must be lost." Then he looked up at the Elrics, at once confused and certain.

"That's a guiding law -- what do you mean 'promise'?"

Ed sighed, not wishing to remember anything Dante told him that night, referring instead to what his father told him. "It's not a law -- or it shouldn't be. We all know that just because people try doesn't mean they'll succeed. People go mad trying not to let go of that idea. Their sanity is the price they pay for their effort and they still don't get what they really want. But you knew that."

Gibbs eyes flashed with horror, buckets of blood striking through his memory. _Punching himself in the face. Telling Ed trying to bring things back wasn't right and it wasn't healthy._

"But it doesn't matter. The point is just keeping on trying. Giving up is not an option -- is it, whichever one of you I'm talking to right now?"

"You're talking to my first daddy," Elysia asserted, peeking over the edge of the table, her eyes alight with a grin despite the serious talk around her. "His name is Gunny Sarget, Special Agenet Leroy Jethro Gibbs, United States Marine Corps, Naval Crim'nal Investing Services, Major Case Respou - sponge - "

Elysia thought for a moment before passing that word up altogether. "Team Leader. Second daddy is Bridge-deer General Roy Mustang. Third daddy is Bridge-deer General Mäes Hughes. Isn't he talking to you, Daddy? Bigger Brother Ed doesn't know the difference like me and Big Brother Al."

"Nope," Gibbs answered in the negative, a grin coming back to his face at the stunned expression on Edward's face and the grin Alphonse was trying to smother. "He doesn't know I've got a really, _really_ long name. What a pity."

"I'm beginning to understand why you turned off that intercom," Gracia said, covering her face and the devious smile it held, as well.

"But -- Al..." Ed let his hands fall to the table, one of them clunking hollowly. "Al just said your souls were all trapped inside one body now. He didn't say _they belonged there_!"

"I couldn't do so out there, Brother," Al said calmly. "It's nobody's business that they don't want to know. Agent Gibbs' team is sort of -- well, two of them I don't like very much. They bully Agent McGee and I like him _very_ much."

"Most kids do," Gibbs nodded, remembering several cases where Tony had been left out in the cold. "Tony kind of hides all that from Abby. She'd be beyond angry with him if she ever found out and he knows it. Kate and Abby are friends, but..."

"Tony likes Abby," Al said decisively and Gibbs nodded. "So does Agent McGee. Abby likes them both. Tony is stupid about Agent McGee and should really get over that before McGee gets revenge with Abby's help."

"...I...uh...what, seriously?" Ed felt the realization hit him like a brick and blushed. "Wow."

"To each their own," Gibbs shrugged.

"Yes, can we move on, _again, Roy?_" She glared pointedly and Gibbs' face shifted back into that purely Mustang smirk.

"Yes, we can. My apologies."

"Liar."

"The best lie is always founded in the truth." That was Gibbs.

Gracia must've pinched Gibbs beneath the table again because he backtracked instantly.

"Back to the point. Now you two know what we figured out while Edward was doubtlessly outside pitching a fit."

Al laughed and Ed shot him a glare, which didn't deter his subsequent grin in the slightest.

"So what'll that mean for Al and I?" Ed asked warily, wondering where this was going.

"Well, Leroy and I are hardly going to toss you both to the wolves and let you fend for yourselves -- _yes_, Edward, I'm well aware of what you're capable of and so is Leroy, now. That's not enough, unfortunately."

Gracia sighed and reached across the table to take Ed's face in her hand just as she'd done Gibbs not even an hour beforehand. "Even with your resourcefulness, Ed, you can't get by with sleeping wherever you happen to end up. Not only is Washington, D.C., very, _very_ cold in the winter, but there are weapons you didn't even have the last time you remember and people willing to do whatever they want with them for little to no logical reason."

"Right," Gibbs picked up effortlessly, a frown on his face now. "You're eighteen and, legally, I can't make you do squat -- or I wouldn't if you were naturalized, which none of you are. Gracia and Elysia will have to be naturalized under those names since their..." Gibbs exhaled heavily, gripping the table and Gracia reached up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, laying her head on his shoulder, even as he stiffened further, his breath deepening as well.

Ed looked away toward Al, blushing, then surprised to see him staring at his own lap, grimacing as tears slid down his face. Elysia was the only other one not actually crying, but she again walked back to her parents and wriggled in between them to sit on her father's lap.

"We love you, Daddy," she said simply and Gibbs grasped both Elysia and Gracia to himself once again, unable to keep himself from moaning as he cried this time. Ed bit his lip and mirrored the gesture, wrapping his arm around Al's shoulder and placing his chin on top of his little brother's head.

He felt an horrible heaving sensation in his stomach as he realized that if Hughes' soul was really in Gibbs' body then, he, too, would be reuniting with the family he'd been torn away from just as Agent Gibbs had when -- did that mean Elysia and Gracia had lived on this side first, _died_, and then their souls had crossed over to Amestris?

No wonder Gibbs, Hughes, and Gracia were suffering. Unlike himself and Al, they hadn't had a chance to spend time together after being ripped apart -- even if only for a few too-short minutes. They'd gotten nothing until now.

"Whatever you're proposing, we'll do it," Ed said quietly, ignoring Gibbs' shudder as his only response. Eventually, his grip loosened and Ed was surprised to see Gibbs' face was absolutely awash with tears, his skin dark pink and blotchy as he reached into his coat and pulled out a handkerchief before Gracia took it from his hand and used it to mop his face clean and then her own.

Ed fought the urge to wince or frown. A father and husband losing his daughter and wife juxtaposed with a wife and daughter losing their father and husband. _Talk about your paradox._

Gibbs forced a breath in, out, and back in, sniffling heavily before continuing in a surprisingly steady voice. "You'll all have to be naturalized since you're not citizens. Alphonse is too young to be your full responsibility. It's just too much pressure to put on someone so young.

"You both need to learn and you can't do that if you're worrying about what you're going to eat or where you'll sleep. Our house has more than enough room for all of us and you'll have your own rooms or you can share, your choice."

"We'll share," both brothers said at once and Gibbs laughed despite the weight in his chest.

"There's a school here in D.C. Al can attend, Elysia later on. It's specifically for children from the other side, even though you two are the only people we've ever heard the name from -- most are unable to remember much of anything."

"So new Gates keep opening up all over?" Ed asked, dread filling his heart. "We were supposed to keep that from happening."

"It's not your fault," Gibbs said decisively and Ed was prepared to dismiss him but in a tone that was just so much like _Hughes_ that it forced Edward to pause. "Eckart's adaptation of alchemy for this side had far reaching effects -- way more than the Permanent Gate. That's guarded by the German government night and day like the underground city back home.

"But since her transmutation circles would just appear randomly and start using energy from either side, eventually smaller tears in the Gate began to form. You came out of one, I believe, instead of what's now commonly called the P.G. like you'd planned -- Al, you know as we do that the Gate's like a hallway. There used to be only two doors. Now there are more than we can count, it's been so long."

Then Gibbs' tone became undeniably Mustang's again.

"Some countries have been very upfront about it, not wasting any time in trying to support those pulled through. We've never been certain what Amestris has been able to do because we can't go back and have a look, but we do know that places here like Mexico and the continent of Africa, in general -- Europe, especially -- have been diligent. There are too many orphans, too many side-effects from over-exposure to the Gate for most to deny and ignore it. China tried a cover-up decades ago and they're still sorting out the mess."

"And the States?"

Gibbs sighed slowly and Ed felt a surge of irritation that let him know _that_ was still Mustang.

"They've struck somewhere in the middle, the U.S. Like Xing, they've strictly forbidden alchemy for anything other than a few very specific purposes -- most involving the government. Unfortunately, the States have chosen weaponry and 'defense' like Amestris had in the past under the Führer.

"Luckily, though, they've chosen some medicinal alchemy, as well, like Xing, but that's also restricted by their FDA. Students that want to learn it have to go into medical schools even more stringent than the usual ones."

"The Food and Drug Administration," Ed murmured, remembering hearing about it from Alphons at some point. "They want to make sure certain techniques don't cause more harm than good."

"Exactly."

Ed glanced back at Gibbs before running his flesh hand over his face. "This is going to be really weird, talking to three people in the same body."

Gibbs gave him a look that was somehow all three at once. "You bound your little brother's soul to a suit of armor and walked around with him for four years, but you want to tell us what's weird?"

Ed huffed and rolled his eyes, starting with a yelp when he realized Gibbs had kicked him in his flesh leg under the table.

"Another thing: choosing to live with me means you live by my rules and those of my wife's and I highly doubt she'll condone eye-rolling and any of that other crud any more than I do."

That was all Gibbs, Ed could see, and he took a breath. "Fine, I mean, yes, sir."

"One last thing," Gibbs said in a lighter tone. "Don't call me 'sir'."

Ed stared at him, waiting for the punchline. When it didn't come, he asked, "Well, what then, if not 'sir'?"

"Gibbs is fine."

Ed's eyes widened in disbelief. "But if we're going to be living in a house of you and you're all Gibbses, we can't -- "

Gibbs raised his right eyebrow. "You really think my wife and daughter can't differentiate from myself?"

Ed had to suppress a huff lest he be kicked again. "You're incredibly frustrating. Gibbs."

"People in glass houses. Ed."

"Hypocrisy all around," Gracia said, then, but she was smiling again.

"Uh-huh. Come on." Gibbs got to his feet, bringing Elysia with him. "I've got to kick DiNozzo's butt for hanging around outside that window."

...TBC...


	6. Aftershocked

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** _The ache of separation is gone but we're useful only in giving direction. It's the price we paid._

**Notes:** I came up with this last November right at the start of NaNoWriMo and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for that but I can still attempt this, regardless.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Beta: D.M. Evans**

Part V: Aftershocked

_"Don't use a child to fuel your agenda!" Edward Elric to Dante; "Your dad said the same thing..." - Dante to Edward Elric_

Ed rose to follow Gibbs and...well, his and Al's possible new family, as it would seem -- when suddenly his head swam and an ache similar to the one he'd felt the last time he'd been unceremoniously shoved through the Gate shot through his head, causing him to falter and crash to his knees, which didn't help at all because then an electric shock ricocheted through his right arm and left leg and before he could stop himself, he'd cried out in pain.

Al, barely having risen from his own seat, promptly jumped over Ed's and knelt at his side as Gibbs came back to do the same. Gracia picked Elysia, who was now starting to sniffle, tears gathering in her eyes, up and rushed her outside, where she indeed found Agent DiNozzo trying to figure out what was going on.

"Agent, if you don't care to feel my husbands' (she'd let him think what he wanted) wrath, then I suggest you come back to the bullpen with us."

"Wait, _what_? Husband? Huh?"

Gracia ignored him and, without further ado, she used her free arm to haul his shocked form into a standing position and dragged him bodily back to the bullpen where he belonged.

She'd ask Leroy what was going on with Ed after she'd gotten Elysia distracted.

"Agent McGee," she called urgently, gathering his attention at once. "I believe this belongs to you," she said dryly, depositing Tony at the desk opposite McGee's and turning back to the agent in question before DiNozzo could raise a stink. "Elysia, do you want to talk to Agent McGee for a while? I promise he's nice. He and Al are friends."

"Oh, hey, I-I don't mind looking after her for a while," Tony interjected, but Gracia pursed her lips at him.

"Agent DiNozzo, Edward and Alphonse are each very dear to both Elysia and I and you've already insulted Edward and Agent McGee, who actually bothered to try to get to know Alphonse. If you think Alphonse is overly protective of Edward, that's only because you haven't taken the time to get to know his older brother. Those two are a set in this world and any other."

Gracia sighed at DiNozzo's uncomprehending expression, gently beginning to rub circles in Elysia's back.

"I'm sure yourself and Agent Todd probably wouldn't mean Elysia any harm, but knowing that you're liable to mock others without thinking, I'm not certain I want my six-year-old around you both just yet."

Gracia saw a rebuttal forming on Tony's lips and calmly cut him off, "Think about it from my position, Agent. If you saw two people constantly sniping at one another and ganging up on someone who's meant to be and _is_ their equal, wouldn't you shield your child from them until you got to know them better?"

Tony blinked momentarily, then sighed, scooting his chair back before something came back to him, "What did you mean by 'your husband's wrath'? Gibbs isn't married -- or is this something from Special Ops we're not supposed to know about?"

Gracia raised an eyebrow at Tony, who deflated. "Uh, right -- if it was Spec-Ops, you wouldn't be able to tell us if you wanted to. Sorry -- I won't say another word."

Elysia sniffled and wiped her face with the back of her hand and McGee finally managed to recover from his shock enough to grab some tissues from the box on his desk and hand them to Gracia, who began wiping Elysia's tears away.

"Bigger Brother Ed hurts all over!" Elysia wailed, clutching her mother and apparently trying desperately to get her to understand. "Daddies have to take care of him!"

"They will, baby, I promise -- cross our hearts."

McGee fumbled with the nearest drawer and produced a...solved Rubik's cube, hesitating before Gracia's eyes alighted upon it and her own face glowed as she said, "That's perfect. Undo it."

McGee's eyes widened and then narrowed in confusion, but he did as ordered, presenting Elysia with the puzzle and watching in amazement as her previously anguished face lit up and she took the puzzle, promptly beginning to turn and twist the sides as her mother sat her atop McGee's desk and straightened her clothes and hair that had gotten mussed once more when Elysia squeezed in between herself and Leroy's bodies in her effort to hug them.

"I don't mean to imply that _any_ of you should have to babysit her or anything, it's just that Scieszka -- " Gracia brought herself up short as she realized Scieszka was likely long dead and buried. She took a deep breath and tried to breathe through tears of her own that had sprung up so suddenly.

McGee jerked to his feet and promptly offered Gracia his chair. "It's perfectly alright -- I really like kids. They're more fun than adults and have - they have open minds that adults tend to close."

He resisted the urge to glare at Tony or Kate, whom he both noticed staring surreptitiously at Gracia and Elysia before moving to block the both of them from his fellow agents' view. He turned back and smiled down at Elysia, who was working industriously away at the puzzle in a time he probably would use to play one or two rounds of Minesweeper.

"She's...wow," McGee smiled, watching the little girl work.

Gracia laughed despite her distress slowly ebbing away. "She's pretty wow, yeah. She's Daddies' little girl, I assure you."

Elysia looked up at her mother's clever turn of phrase and grinned widely.

Gracia took a tissue of her own and wiped her face properly for the first time, choosing to simply sit and watch Elysia, knowing her boys would take care of each other.

***

"Kid, look at me," Mustang said with Gibbs' voice, watching through the windows of Gibbs' eyes as Ed bit down a second scream. "You have to focus. Fullmetal, look at me!" he snapped and Ed halted enough to glare, a tiny trickle of blood dribbling out of the side of his mouth.

"You didn't lie down after those limbs were attached, did you?"

"I was kind of busy, _Colonel Sarcasm_! No rest for the weary and all that."

"The term is 'no rest for the wicked', Elric," Gibbs said as Roy stepped back and simply watched, taking Mäes' hand and clenching it in his own. Without words, Roy pressed his _face_ into the side of Mäes', blending into him and together they radiated comfort outward into Gibbs and centered it within his corporal hands.

_Touch his arm and leg. Tell him to take it easy_, Mäes commanded softly, his face hard and frozen at the sight of Ed in such pain and his inability to physically do something about it. He, _they_ had to depend upon Gibbs and though they knew Ed was in excellent hands, it still hurt that he couldn't depend on them, without Gibbs to do everything.

_We knew this was part of the deal, crossing to this side instead of staying in the Gate,_ Roy said quietly, his own voice pained. _The ache of separation is gone but we're useful only in giving direction. It's the price we paid._

Mäes nodded, understanding. _I know. I...dear...you know, I never believed in a god, let alone one all encompassing, but we're one whole again and belief fills me. Leroy believes._

_What a pair for him to get stuck with -- a couple of flat-out atheists. But then, he's agnostic like Ed, probably, if he has anything to do with -- well, me, at least._

Mäes listened as Roy's perpetually self-loathing voice rolled over him, always leaving him feeling like his friend, his brother considered himself slime that needed to be cleaned off his more pristine compatriots. He longed to tell Roy how wrong he was, but they didn't have bodies anymore so that was rather impossible.

So he settled for words and hoped they got through at least for a little while.

_God's all he has left. Had. I never believed either, remember?_

Roy nodded, _I told Führer King Bradley as much. I think he was talking about the one we gave up so long ago -- that hasn't happened here and once upon a time I might have been cynical -- _

_You're still cynical._

_Shut up, Mäes. I would have found it all some sick joke, but now...watching you and Leroy, filled with such pride, such hurt, and __hope_ for Gracia and Elysia as I am for Ed and Al -- knowing Elysia considers me_ just as much her father as the two of you?_

Roy turned away from Gibbs' eyes to give Mäes his full attention for a moment before speaking again.

_After what I've done, what Leroy's done -- our hands are so stained, but Elysia loves us, Gracia loves us -- Riza loved me -- what the hell have I done to deserve such a gift? Is this what God does? Gives to the wicked and takes from the just?_

Mäes sighed, his chin coming to tuck into Roy's shoulder. their arms entwining.

_You're being too hard on yourself, Roy -- as usual. If that were true, then Gracia and Elysia wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be carrying Ed right now..._

Roy sighed. _I can't help but wonder where to._

_If you two would kindly shut up and _stop molesting one another for five seconds_, I could concentrate on getting Ed down to the morgue so Ducky can have a look at him. He's probably trained in automail -- he's trained in every-damned-thing else on the planet Earth..._

_You'll forgive our frustration, Leroy,_ Roy ground out, gripping the bartop they sat before. Bourbon. This place in Gibbs' head only served bourbon. _All we have to do here is watch, talk, and get plastered._

_If we were alive we'd be blithering drunks and, quite possibly, homosexuals,_ Mäes agreed, turning away from his own tumbler and staring out through Gibbs' eyes as the interrogation room turned into the hallway and then a set of stairs, bypassing the elevators altogether.

Both soldiers laughed at the internal shudder that rippled through Gibbs' consciousness. Then Mäes became _slightly_ more serious.

_We could have used elevators, huh, Roy?_

_Not during the fire in the Führer's mansion, you couldn't,_ Gibbs thought urgently. _You'd've lost more than that eye. Both of you shut up, I need to talk to Ducky, Palmer, and possibly Abby and I need to be myself while doing it!_

"Duck!"

"Oh, dear, Gibbs -- here, set him right over here..."

"He didn't lie down after his replacement procedure -- Eckard and all her crap!" Gibbs spared Eckard's body as menacing a glare as he could, wishing she was still in rigor so he could at least pretend she was in as much pain as she deserved.

"Ah, automail, I remember Grandmother used to -- "

"Duck!" Gibbs snapped and Mustang chuckled. "You're a Rockbell, you know this stuff like the back of your hand -- fix him."

"Rockbell..." Ed murmured, half-conscious as Gibbs lay him down on an autopsy table far away from where Eckard's body lay prepped for the procedure she would undergo tomorrow morning.

_Bitch,_ Roy muttered vehemently, forcing Gibbs' eyes to stray toward her body one last time.

"Oh, dear," the 'older' doctor tutted, taking the time to stroke Edward's brow. "If I didn't know better I'd say this was Grandfather -- Grandmother told me he was crushed in an air raid, a Zepplin fell on him and he suffered what was probably a subarachnoid bleed at first considering he couldn't get away from the bloody thing, probably a smashed skull in the end -- both his legs were destroyed, as well -- they were due to be married when the war ended..."

The doctor gently stripped Edward of his pants and shirt and gingerly palpated his red and inflamed skin and the corded scar tissue surrounding his anchors, his flesh and the wiring on his automail each plainly hot to the touch.

"Your nerves were never given the time they needed to adjust to the strain they'd been put under, young man -- though I honestly get the urge to call you 'Grandfather'..."

_And not for no good reason,_ Mäes grinned, leaving Roy rolling his eyes half in understanding, the other in the same frustration Gibbs now felt.

"Can you fix him?"

_That's Al,_ Mustang smiled slightly, remembering how the younger Elric had jerked out of his arms and just about latched himself onto Ed's ship as it began its descent to the ground.

He'd always wondered until now if Al had managed not to get himself crushed. He finally had the answer.

"Oh, yes, yes, I can -- he'll need strict bedrest straightaway for at _least_ a day, however. Only the lavatory as needed, but prone on his back the rest of it. He's running a fever, as well. 102.7 -- dear me, if it goes any higher, he'll need medication.

"Though, if he can tolerate swallowing ice water, we'll try that first. Here, Jethro, prop him up -- Mr. Palmer, get young -- Edward a cup of ice water and a straw. Your name, young man?"

"Alphonse Elric," Al answered, anxiety plain in his voice. "Ed's my brother -- you...you knew a Winry Rockbell? Doctor Mallard?"

"Ducky, Alphonse -- my mother's mother. She trained my mother in automail and she trained me, though I opted to become a further trained surgeon instead of a mechanic -- I find flesh rather more enticing to examine than machinery -- Grandmother told me that never made sense. 'Who needs flesh,' she told me..."

"Winry said that to -- " Al started to answer before clapping his hands over his mouth, his light brown eyes wide. Ducky was still working but he glanced upward at Alphonse, favoring him with an intrigued expression before turning his attention to Mr. Palmer, who had returned with a large styrofoam cup with a paper covered straw sticking out of it.

"Ah, thank you, Mr. Palmer..." Ducky accepted the water from Mr. Palmer, removed the paper covering, and asked Gibbs and Al to help prop Ed upward so he wouldn't choke.

"He's burning up," Gibbs muttered angrily, reaching up to stroke Ed's hair away from his face so it didn't catch on the straw being placed in his mouth.

"Drink, Fullmetal," Roy commanded before he could stop himself and distinctly felt something akin to a foot kick him in the side.

_SHUT UP!_

_Go to hell,_ Roy sniped back, rubbing his side while Mäes chuckled and Roy glared at him.

Ed's swallow reflex kicked in, apparently, because he began to do just that, choking only slightly as the first few swallows went down. Soon, the cup was empty and he sighed and fully lost consciousness as Gibbs and Ducky lay him back down on the mercifully cold table.

Ducky handed Gibbs a red packet that said _Tylenol_ and said, "Make sure he takes these as soon as he awakens. I'd give him intravenous paracetamol if I had it. As his fever goes back down, he'll begin to shiver rather violently. It would be best to give him only a sheet, however. Once his fever breaks, he can have a blanket."

"Paracetamol? You've lived in the States _how long_, Duck?" Gibbs jibed, glad that he could feel Elric cooling down already. Ducky waved him away in a mock irritated fashion and his face became serious again. "He won't awaken for quite a while, Jethro. It's best you take the two of them somewhere safe and watch over them. _She's_ not going to do anything to them, not now..."

Ducky, himself, spared Eckard a deathly glare before his face returned to his usual placid demeanor. "I never thought I'd say this about anyone else, but I think I'll rather weigh _her_ liver than our young Mr. Haswari's. Imagine that."

"She helped kill thousands of people, Duck," Gibbs growled, leaning back against the nearest autopsy table and wrapping _their_ arm around Al's shoulders as he began to shake. "Ari's only busy killing himself -- at the Mossad's command."

"Yourself and he have plenty in common, though not that. If he's being used and betrayed, he'll eventually fight back -- though I daresay _he'll_ stop caring who the target's supposed to be."

"Let's hope he never reaches that point, Duck," Gibbs said quietly, gathering Ed's shirt and vest to re-dress him.

"Weighing livers?" Al asked, obviously trying and failing to hide the unease in his voice. Ducky frowned and seemed to mentally give himself his own kick.

"He can take it," Gibbs and Mustang said at once and Gibbs glared inwardly at Roy. "He's seen much worse, unfortunately."

Ducky sighed, obviously wishing not to add to Al's burden. "Yes, well, when a person dies and they're brought in for autopsy -- that being the dissection of them to find out the mechanism of their death -- we remove the organs one by one and weigh them using this scale..."

Gibbs refused to give Mustang the satisfaction of seeing what Ducky was telling Al and spitefully enjoyed the fuming sensation he felt throughout his body as a result.

_Shut the hell up, then._ Finally Gibbs glanced at the scale and tuned back into what Ducky was saying with practiced ease.

"...and when someone is comatose for long periods without hospitalization, fluids accumulate within their organs, particularly filters such as the lungs and the aforementioned liver and before we drain those fluids to get a look at the state of the organ, itself, we can weigh it to ascertain how long the person was comatose before death by the amount of fluid that has been allowed to accumulate."

"Wow," Al whispered, enraptured as he looked around the morgue at the various tables, drawers, and tools laid out on the tables. Ducky chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Yes, it is quite fascinating. You see, when a person awakens from a coma, their lower brain functions begin performing again, albeit much more slowly -- they have to re-acclimate themselves to their given tasks. We -- that is, physicians such as myself -- typically drain the fluids -- called _ascites_ -- for them in the meantime as they're simply unable to do so."

"What's the fluid made up of?" and both Gibbs and Mäes laughed at Al's quickly getting over his fear in the face of knowledge to be had.

"Well, it depends on the type -- you see, _transudate_ and _exudate_ are caused by different things and come from different -- "

"I'm incredibly sorry to break this up," Gibbs cut in, seemingly genuinely so. "But Elric -- Ed still needs to lie down and as much fun as it would be for him to wake up in the same morgue as one of the most evil people he's ever met, I suggest this wait until he's conscious enough to participate and she's buried in an unmarked grave in Potter's field."

"Right, sorry, Brother," Al said, leaning down to whisper something in Ed's ear that Gibbs and, consequently, Mustang and Hughes, didn't catch. Ducky, however, smiled and genially asked Mr. Palmer to get Edward some more water to have on the ride to --

" -- I assume you'll be taking him to your house, then, Jethro?"

"Yeah -- you and Palmer come over when you're done with that monster and bring Abby with you, I guess. She and Edward'll get along great."

Ducky grimaced at Eckard before smiling at Gibbs' latter comment and nodding precisely. "That they shall -- should I ask Timothy to come along, as well?"

Gibbs sighed, weighing the pros and cons. "As much fun as I'm sure that'd be for Al, it'd make Kate and Tony suspicious, not to mention jealous, and I don't need or want them making Edward, Alphonse, Gracia, or Elysia out to be anything they're not -- though I'm going to have to ask you a huge favor tomorrow. I'll let you know then."

Ducky gave Gibbs a concerned look before training it on Al and Ed in turn, but Gibbs cut him off, "It's nothing like that." He exhaled deeply. "This...you say your grandmother was named Winry Rockbell?"

"Yes..." Ducky answered, trying not to jump to any conclusions.

Gibbs exhaled gustily again, vaguely throwing his hands up. "Bring a couple of blood kits with you. I've got a gut feeling."

Ducky's eyes widened, then, and he glanced back at Ed once more. "Oh, dear."

***

Gracia watched as Leroy carried an unconscious Ed out of the elevator, attracting the attention of McGee, Tony, and Kate at once. Elysia simply jumped up and walked forward to reach up and lay a hand on Ed's forehead.

"He's hot, make him colder," she commanded as if her fathers had magical powers.

"I would if I could, princess," Gibbs murmured, nodding forward since his hands were full. "We're taking him home. Uncle Ducky says he'll be out of it for at least a day. Can you watch him for us and Big Brother Al?"

Elysia nodded resolutely, backing away so her fathers could continue their trek out of NCIS headquarters and out to an NCIS van, which Ed was loaded into the back of and buckled in, with Al and Elysia clambering into the seat directly behind him.

"Sit down, buckle up," Gibbs commanded and they did so. Gibbs took a deep breath and paused, during which Gracia ignored the agents standing behind her husbands and took the opportunity to steal the keys from him so he wouldn't get them all killed on the way to the house.

"Is there some reason you three are standing behind me?"

McGee and Tony each gulped and stepped back, but Kate gathered her nerve. "Gibbs, what the -- "

Gibbs whirled around and glared at her, daring her to forget a six-year-old child was sitting clearly within sight. Mustang bodily forced Hughes back from Gibbs' eyes, pressing him backwards onto his stool and forcing him to turn away from the tableau before them. Gibbs could handle it.

"Excuse me?"

Kate caught herself and stirred her nerve back up. "Gibbs, what's going on? Ever since those four showed up, you've been -- Gibbs to the nth power, if not _more_, if that were even possible. Not just your usual barking, not just your usual lack of an explanation, not just your usual _everything_, but now you're just loading them all up and letting someone who could be a suspect in something _drive you somewhere_?"

"She doesn't even have red hair," Tony piped up from Kate's left and Kate and McGee each rolled their eyes.

"Thanks for that observation, DiNozzo, but your help is unneeded at this time. Get back to work."

"We don't have a case!" Tony argued, daring to shoot Gracia a glare. "And she said something about -- ah, never mind that, but we don't have anything to do, Boss."

"Find something," Gibbs ordered, sliding the side door shut before lurching into the passenger seat and slamming that one.

With that, Gracia started the engine, astonished that she remembered such a thing -- she'd never driven in Amestris, preferring to walk unless Elysia was being taken somewhere. Mäes and, later, Schiezska had driven in those cases, allowing Gracia to take in the scenery around her.

She did miss Amestris in that it was a beautiful country with so much open, green space. Washington, D.C., on the other hand was like the heart of Central, except noisier, and even more bustling if she could believe such a thing. She was tempted to see how Al and Elysia were handling it but she had a good idea they were just as placid as always.

Before long, both too much and not enough, they arrived and Gracia gasped before she'd realized it.

"You remember it," Gibbs said softly, a small smile on his face, tears coming back to his eyes. He blinked them away and placed his hand on top of Gracia's where it sat clutching the steering wheel. "You remember home."

Gracia looked back at his face, her face pale. She'd cried more today than she thinks she's ever cried -- even more than when she found out Mäes had been shot, more than at his funeral, more than when Leroy would come home from his missions and wrap his arms around them both.

Now it was her turn. Hers and Elysia's, and Ed and Al -- if they allowed it. She didn't doubt Ed's word that they'd stay, but she wondered how long. When Ed wanted to do something, he didn't let anyone stand in his way, and Leroy was the same. How long until they clashed too much to --

"You're worrying," Leroy chided and she gave him an incredulous glare. That was Mäes, too, she knew, and she took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around him again.

"I don't know how long we'll be able -- to do this," she confessed, causing Leroy to stiffen.

"You don't -- "

"I do," she interrupted firmly. "I've never wanted something so much in my life. But Edward and Alphonse have been on their own since they were eleven and ten -- they're used to doing things their own way, just like you are. You still don't talk to your father, do you?"

The stony look that clouded Leroy's face at her words was all the answer she needed. "You wanted to get out and live your life the way you wanted. How long until they do, too?"

Gibbs frowned, sliding back to his side of the van, shooting Al and the unconscious Ed a strangely wounded glare before opening the door and getting out.

Gracia sighed and closed her eyes momentarily before turning back to face Al, who snapped back from staring at Gibbs' still form standing next to the van, facing away from them. "Alphonse, you and Ed need to be sure about this." Gracia took another deep breath. "He's lost more than all of us. I doubt he could stand it again."

Al's soft face firmed into a resolute expression. "We're sure. Brother and I had a home, with a caring family waiting for us. We'll always need one, even if Brother needs reminding sometimes."

Gracia gave him a watery smile, reaching back to trail her thumb along his face before getting out of the van.

...TBC...


	7. Familiar

**Battering**  
_By Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** "Go get Ed and Al settled, Jethro," Gracia soothed, a watery smile on her face as she shooed the three of them forward. "We'll be right here when you and Al get back."

**Notes:** I came up with this last November right at the start of NaNoWriMo and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for that but I can still attempt this, regardless.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Betas:** **D.M. Evans**, **adoxerella**

Part VI: Familiar

_You boys are fools. You _do_ have a home. And the caring family waiting for you. - Lieutenant Colonel Alex Louis Armstrong to Major Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric;_

Gracia walked around the side of the van and stopped, taking a breath before taking hold of Leroy's hand and pressing her lips to his shoulder. He didn't look at her, but the sigh he gave was all the answer she needed. Biting her lip, Gracia turned back and opened the door, immediately beginning to unbuckle Elysia, who had fallen asleep, and wordlessly indicating that Al do the same.

Al glanced at Ed, whose head was slumped at what had to be an uncomfortable angle between the armrest and back cushion of the seat ahead of them, and then frowned slightly, nodding and unbuckling his own seatbelt opposite the way he'd seen Elysia do her own earlier.

Gracia gathered Elysia into her arms and then stepped back, allowing Gibbs to turn back around, his mouth set in a firm line, and slide the van door all the way open so as to gain proper access to Ed's body, whereupon Gibbs pushed the levers that allowed the seat he'd used to slide and fall forward and positioned his leg into the van for leverage.

Gently, so as not to jar his inflamed arm or leg, Gibbs placed his arms underneath Ed and lifted him, pulling him forward until Ed was laying against Gibbs' chest.

Al felt his throat tighten when he realized how pale Ed had gotten, but managed not to say anything, forcing himself to turn and follow the Gibbses up to their front door, which Gibbs pushed open but Gracia, instead of going inside, glanced back to give him an irritated glare.

"You still haven't mastered the fine art of locking the doors, I see. Well, we're going to do that now for Elysia's sake. And your guns better still be locked up, Leroy Jethro Gibbs," Gracia added in a hardened tone Al was surprised to hear, as she'd never spoken to anyone in such a way before, but Ag -- Gibbs merely raised an eyebrow and blew a breath out, gently prodding her forward.

Gracia would have stopped again, staring at the house she remembered so readily now, how much the same it was, how much it had changed, but Leroy again prodded her forward and she carried Elysia toward the stairs as he followed with Ed.

Al stared all around the house, somewhat comforted to find rather a lack of the electronic devices McGee had started to explain to him earlier, but his main concern was for Brother and how much damage had been done by what, as -- Ducky -- had said amounted to over eighty years of pressure and abuse compressed into less than a day.

There was no telling how long Ed would be unconscious or how long it would take him to recuperate as, according to the surgeon, no other Amestrian with automail already attached -- and certainly not so recently beforehand -- had ever come through the Gate and certainly not from the time they'd just left.

Al noticed that there were no photographs anywhere in the house and privately surmised that this was because Gibbs hadn't wanted to be reminded of the family he'd lost.

When they reached the upper level, however, Gibbs immediately turned right and opened a door where a child's room was still furnished immaculately, a large quantity of stuffed animals arranged around the bed that Gracia, tears now streaming down her face, carefully shifted with her arm so that she could lay Elysia down beside them.

A dollhouse and other toys, also well-maintained, were positioned around the room. The first photograph that Al had seen in the house sat on the bureau, clearly Elysia at a park with Agent Gibbs in some version of the lower rank American military attire Al had seen throughout the day carrying her on his shoulders, a bunch of balloons on strings tied around her wrist.

Al guessed it had been Gracia who'd taken the photograph and looked downward, his vision becoming blurry again when something inside told him someone else had.

Sniffling as she turned back around, Gracia came over to cup Gibbs' pale face and pressed her lips against his, eliciting a surprised flinch, but ignoring it before speaking, unconsciously glancing downward at the comatose Edward still in his arms.

"Your dad did the same for you, don't forget that."

Gibbs flinched, but nodded and sighed, turning but unable to resist glancing backward at Elysia, who remained asleep in a loosely curled position, her shoes now removed by Gracia, who was placing them on the floor.

"Go get Ed and Al settled, Jethro," Gracia soothed, a watery smile on her face as she shooed the three of them forward. "We'll be right here when you and Al get back."

Al opened his mouth to object, but Gracia gave him the same stern look she'd given Gibbs earlier when asking about his guns and asked him, "When did you last eat, Al?"

Al's face crumpled as, just then as luck would have it, his stomach decided to complain very loudly, causing Al to blush furiously, but Gracia and Gibbs only smiled encouragingly.

"I thought so. We're going to eat when Elysia wakes up -- at the table because we don't permit eating all over the house -- yes, Al, I know Ed's in a coma, but we have rules we observe as I believe my husbands told you."

Al stared down at his shoes, abashed, but Gracia, who was now standing once more, lifted his chin and gave him a gentle smile. "As soon as dinner's over, you can go back to yours and Ed's room. Right now, you'll decide which side of the room you want and Leroy will move one of the empty beds from another room into yours. We can turn that empty one back into an office, like Leroy had when we were last here. It'd probably cut down on his poor agents having to breathe all that _sawdust_..."

This part she directed at Gibbs, who made a face but clearly didn't mean it.

"Sawdust?" Al asked, confused.

Gracia gave a little laugh, "Leroy's building a boat in the basement -- or should I say, sanding it until there'll be nothing left."

She then looked at Gibbs, "Put whatever bourbon and various other _heirloom poisons_ you have down there on a high shelf, Leroy, as soon as possible. If I remember correctly, Jackson left you that inhumanly high-proof whiskey the last time he visited, the one with no label that you only figured out what it was when you'd opened it...it could have been cyanide for all you'd known..."

Gibbs sighed before his mouth turned up in a smirk. "I thought you _liked_ Jack. And it _is_ on a high shelf, next to the paint thinner and stripper. DiNozzo _did_ sniff it once and doesn't come any further than the steps anymore. Fornell tried some and choked on it, which was what he deserved at the time and Kate and McGee haven't even descended the steps. Abby and Ducky prefer the living room and kitchen. Ke- Elysia knows not to go near my tools anyway. But do you look like you care, no," Gibbs amended at the death glare Gracia was giving him now.

Gibbs gave a heavy sigh and began to walk out of the room again, with Al on his heels, before suddenly turning -- Al bumping into him, but Gibbs didn't comment or so much as look at him -- and frowning as though offended, "What do you mean '_inhumanly high-proof_?'"

Gracia shooed him again, frowning and getting up when Gibbs didn't move. "I don't know what kind of racketeer your grandfather fancied himself as, but _no one_ needs two-hundred proof whiskey -- and that's a conservative estimate, mind you. If Al so much as sniffed it, he'd probably drop dead on the spot."

Gibbs made a legitimate face this time, "Okay, that's a complete exaggeration, but I'll move it if it makes you happy."

Al was almost certain Gibbs was only faking his disgruntled tone.

***

Al watched as Gibbs lay Ed down on the current bed in the room, noting that here all the beds were either in the middle of the furthest wall or positioned in a corner and also larger. This room, itself, was rather empty and Al guessed that Gibbs didn't have many guests, especially if anything he said about no one venturing very far into his -- their house was true.

After Gibbs had transferred another bed in (he'd absolutely refused Al's help, under any circumstances), Al sat down on the mattress across from Ed, finding it surprisingly springy, but then was further unnerved when something hit him in the face.

He looked down in apprehension and some fear to find a bundle of clothing in his lap. He relaxed and looked back up at Gibbs, who was watching him from the doorway.

"I know my boxers are too big for you so you'll have to go commando for a -- actually, you're probably commando right now considering what year you lived in and the fact that your brother wasn't wearing anything when Ducky bathed him. Anyway -- we'll get both you and Ed some new clothes tomorrow. After dinner, I'm going to teach you how to make your bed."

Al's first thought was to protest, sure he knew perfectly well how to make a bed, but his intuition came back again and told him this was somehow different.

Gibbs ran his hand over his hair, messing it up for the first time since Al had met him. "For now, go to the head -- ah, the...water closet, whatever -- they're called bathrooms now, by the way, in civilian-speak -- across the hall and wash up head to toe because you haven't had a bath in eighty years, give or take. I'll teach you how to use the shower tomorrow morning. And I should add that I expect you both at the breakfast table no later than 06:30 if either of you expect to go into work with me."

Gibbs was already turning to walk away. Al noticed he did that a lot, simply assuming that his word was law and would be fulfilled in his absence.

From the way his team operated, Al supposed he didn't have any reason to believe this wasn't true. He wondered if Gibbs was going to hit him, but figured it couldn't be any worse than what Teacher doled out whenever they screwed up.

Al bit his lip. He couldn't think about Teacher right now. He had to listen to Gibbs, who was still talking even though he was halfway down the hall by now. His voice echoed and Al almost thought he might wake Brother, though he knew that couldn't happen because Ed's body was too far into shock, as Ducky had warned them.

"Anyway, then put those on. And take that coat off while you're in the house, especially if you're going to go sitting around on any furniture.

"I'm going to put your current clothing in the washing machine and hope they don't fall apart. Though I guess if they do you can transmute them back together. Sh -- " Gibbs paused slightly before continuing, "Gracia's decided she's going to drag me to the grocery store since she's deemed everything _I_ have unfit for human consumption. If you have any preferences, make a list or something."

It was then that Gibbs, who come back at some point, tossed him a bunch of paper that was stuck together at the top, hitting his head, as well as what Al now recognized to be a ballpoint pen.

"I - er, yes, uh -- "

"Pay attention. Another rule. None of that mumbling or stammering crap. Just say it. If it's not a swear word or whatever, it's not like we'll get mad.

"Tomorrow, after you get your clothes, I'm taking you to get a haircut and when your brother wakes up, he'll be getting one, too. He can bitch and moan all he wants but if he's going to stay here, that mop-top's -- or the ponytail, at the very least -- gotta go."

Al hesitated before schooling his face into an open expression -- or what he hoped was one -- and saying as clearly as he could, "Yes, Gibbs."

Gibbs looked like he wanted to say something else, but just shrugged and closed the door, leaving Al to his privacy.

...TBC...


	8. Caretaker

**Battering**  
_by Angelfirenze_

**Disclaimer:** NCIS belongs to Bellasario, et al. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Arikawa Hiromu.

**Summary:** Al looked down at his own body and shivered. "I never knew that. Ed...I don't know what he knows. Mom was normal, but Dad...I don't know if we're human and can die. I don't know anything anymore."

**Notes:** I came up with this last November right at the start of NaNoWriMo and didn't want to let go of it. I don't think I'm ready for that but I can still attempt this, regardless. Also, a Cracked article inspired part of the dialogue between Gibbs, Roy, and Mäes. The lyrics belong to Blind Willie McTell, who scares me.

**Universes:** NCIS, original recipe (it feels so weird to say that...), early season two and _Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa_.

**Beta:** **adoxerella**

Part VII: Caretaker

_"Because even if I'd lived for a thousand lifetimes, I never could do enough to earn the gift of my children: you and Al." - Hohenheim of Light to Edward Elric_

Gibbs watched Gracia climb back into the van and drive off, having given her his base and PX passes beforehand and making a mental note to get more for Gracia and Al. Ed was eighteen and ineligible and Elysia was only six and didn't require her own yet. But what to do in the meantime, since Ed was still out cold and Al hadn't raised any alarms...

_You know you can't use bullets anymore, right?_ Roy's voice was echoing through his head again and immediately Gibbs rolled his eyes. "I don't have any of your ignition cloth gloves. I don't smoke like Havoc did and I'm not about to start. And I have to use bullets, jackass. What would you expect, a slingshot?"

Mäes howled with laughter and Roy rolled his eyes at a joke Gibbs suddenly understood. "You may be a bad shot, but I could kill your ass."

_I am_ not _a bad shot_, Roy objected flatly and Gibbs smirked, "Aw, someone's buttons are kind of easy to push."

Gibbs could feel Roy restraining himself and smiled even more widely. "An idea, you egotistical ass. You might try it some time. They can be fun."

Roy was fuming, _I'm composing a song, Gibbs. It's called, 'If I Had a Body - The Pieces I Would Cut Yours Into'._

Gibbs snorted, "My dad used to play an old down and dirty blues song something like that. It was by a guy called Blind Willie McTell. Sociopathy. Something you two obviously have in common."

_'Long, Deep, Short, and Wide', huh? Sounds like someone had the perfect idea when it came to you._

Gibbs rolled his eyes, "I was six, moron. My biggest crime was stealing cookies."

_Details, details. It fits n - Okay,_ Mäes broke up their mental I-Could-Kill-You-Better-a-Thon. _Everyone here knows we have better things to be doing than threatening one another with a completely pointless and impossible death._ Then Mäes said in a much lower voice, _You psychos scare me._

Gibbs snorted but Mäes wasn't finished, _Also, Gibbs. Jackson's taste in music was absolutely nasty. I'm just glad Elysia's never heard any of that trash._

"You think that's bad. You should have heard Lucille Bogan and Skip James." There was a pause and then both Roy and Mäes yelled in affront. Gibbs clapped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing. "Will you two shut up? It's called the old down dirty blues for a _reason_!"

_"Your team - that Tony kid, he said something about brain bleach once? GIVE!"_ Gibbs rolled his eyes and Mäes's mouth dropped open.

"Oh, quit whining."

_If you pervert my daughter, Gibbs, I'll - _

"I wouldn't pervert our daughter anymore than my father perverted me, which is actually very little in case you hadn't noticed yet. Aside from that music, my dad wasn't the lech you think he is."

_He goes through six girlfriends in half a year!_

Gibbs raised his hands and shrugged, "Honestly, what is it with you people. Like I told my team - older, not dead."

_He's your father! That doesn't bother you?_

Gibbs sighed, "Now I have something better to do than quibble with you, Hughes, about my eighty-year-old father's sex life. Like you insist, it's none of my business. My _business_ is running my team and household. And, with that, I'm going to check on Al and Ed and then alter all of my weapons since I can now burn people with my bullets.

"Because, you know, my wife didn't have enough reasons to complain about my job."

_You're belittling alchemy._ Gibbs narrowed his eyes at Roy's words and then leaned against the kitchen door jamb. "I'm not, actually. If you knew me, you would know that."

_That's the thing, Jethro,_ Roy said calmly, _I do know you. And you have a talent for joking very seriously. I distinctly recall you offering a known criminal the names of all your ex-wives, as well as their addresses? You intended to have them hidden away should he have attempted to make good on the threat, but if he had, it wouldn't have bothered you terribly._

"You get beamed by a nine-iron or a baseball bat and then ask me what bothers you. I do recall, myself, a whole platoon who'd happily see your head in the latrine for stealing _their_ girlfriends. I believe they made their irritation with you quite apparent during your miniature war with Fullmetal, there." Roy could only roll his eyes. "Say nothing of poor Havoc. Have you no shame, Mustang?"

_Shut up, Gibbs._

Gibbs resisted the urge to smirk at having won against not one but two of the more tangent ghosts in his head and, without stopping to think that he may be just as insane as his team assumed, he began walking to Ed and Al's bedroom, stopping, of course, to lay a blanket over Elysia and give her a kiss on the forehead, for once humoring Hughes' gushing about her because he felt the same way.

After a few moments staring at her, Gibbs turned on his heel and didn't stop again until he was standing in Ed and Al's doorway.

Al was sitting in the far overlarge t-shirt Gibbs had given him, his hair wet and rather smelling a lot better.

Gibbs nodded his approval. "Good work, kiddo." Al tried to look pleased but, in the end, could only shrug morosely as he watched Ed shift in discomfiture on the other bed, his fever finally broken, his entire body shivering badly as he tried to get warm again.

Gibbs sighed, "The Tylenol's working, Al. Just give it time. If you feel so useless, I can help you try to give him more water."

But Al only shook his head, blinking as tears fell from his eyes, "Thank you, no, sir - ah, Gibbs. That's...I know Brother's going to get better. I...can tell. It's..." Al looked up at Gibbs and the latter was surprised to see just how much he'd been crying.

"How many people died? In...in the War?"

Gibbs froze and his mind flashed back to the old soldier who'd been convinced he'd murdered his best friend. Gibbs sighed, frowning as he walked over and sat down on the now properly made bed. Al had scarcely made a dent in the mattress with his own weight, but the springs groaned as Gibbs sat down.

He knew it would be useless to lie to Al, or to Ed, once he was conscious. They'd had their hands in the thick of everything around them for seven years. He would not lie to either of them.

"The actual count of entire war dead is...well, it's known as the most devastating war in modern history, if not all. But I assume you're meaning those Hitler was after."

Al nodded, wiping his eyes again to no avail.

Gibbs exhaled gustily, "Anywhere from five and a half to six million Jews and around the same number, possibly more, of many, many other social and ethnic groups."

Al's eyes widened in horror and Gibbs quickly grabbed him in a hug as he started to sob as quietly as he could. Still, Gibbs knew he had to continue.

"The numbers of soldiers dead, of civilian bystanders...those numbers vary. But...hundreds of millions. Sieges, attacks, counterattacks, blockades...the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...they all took their toll."

Al's tears were hot on Gibbs' shoulder and he pressed his face into Al's now clean hair, giving him a kiss on the top of his head.

"Just remember, Alphonse. Nobody let that stop them. Everyone got on with their lives afterward, those who survived. We had what's called a 'baby boom' afterward. Folks losing their minds that everything was okay again and tons of children were born as a result."

Al shifted backward and blinked, staring into Gibbs' eyes as best as he could through what had to sting. "You were one of them," Al said and Gibbs winced and rolled his eyes.

"Well, if things had gone a bit differently, yeah, I would have been. My dad was pleased as punch to be back home with my mom and nine or so months later, there I was. Wrong war, though. Korean War, not World War II. I was born in 1958."

Al fought back a giggle and then stilled. "You called him 'Jack'. Like Ed...he called our dad 'Hohenheim of Light' instead of..."

"'Dad'." Gibbs sighed again, "My dad and I don't have the best...well, I didn't leave on the best of terms with him. It wasn't him. It was me. My mother died when I was about your age. To say I was pissed afterward was an understatement. I didn't get over it for a long time. I...I knew it wasn't his fault, or anybody's fault. That's what made me so angry. And now..."

Gibbs frowned. "Well, I know he'd still be happy to see me, but I wouldn't know the first thing to say to him, really. My 'jerk' button is pretty automatic with him by now. I'm an ass to him."

Al frowned, himself, glaring at Ed's still frame. "When Dad came back, the first thing Ed did was run up, kick him in the face and ask him what he thought he was doing flirting. Then he said, um - 'You're gone for over ten years and I come home to that?' And then he cursed Dad and called him, 'old man'."

Gibbs held in his sudden urge to laugh with difficulty. "Oh, man, he sounds like me. I could give my dad hell about his girlfriends if I cared more. But..." Gibbs shrugged. "My mom's been gone a long time. He was...it was _healthy_ of him to move on."

Gibbs shrugged, "His name is Jackson, though. Jackson Gibbs, hence 'Jack', in case you were wondering. Your dad really named 'Hohenheim of...'" Gibbs, himself, stilled this time as more of Roy's memories rolled over him. "He was over four centuries old? And...from Xerxes, which no longer exists?"

Al nodded, fiddling with the hem of the t-shirt he wore. "I...I found one of his journals once - it was one of the only ones that didn't have anything to do with alchemy. It said his name was Number 23 and that he'd been a slave...as a human."

Gibbs frowned, "As a human?"

Al nodded again, "A lot of it was written in Xerxian. I can't read that and neither can Ed. When I was in the Gate...I got a lot of information I hadn't before. Different from what Ed got. Dad wasn't human anymore because he did something to try and stop Dante from being able to use the Philosopher's Stone they had at the time for her own use...he told us, 'I thought if I'd just stayed in hiding she'd finally fade away, but I had to do something the moment she set her eyes on you'.

"He didn't want us to end up like...like our half-brother. Dad tried to bring him back to life after he died of mercury poisoning. He failed, of course. Envy was the result. He looked a lot like Dad and kind of like Ed when we finally saw his real face.

"But the point is, after that, I think Dad became disillusioned. He told...when we went through the Gate this last time, I received his memories of all the time and things he did while he was away from us. Even the time he spent here - ah, in Germany with Ed. He took the Stone they had at the time and used alchemy to place it within himself."

Al looked down at his own body and shivered. "I never knew that. Ed...I don't know what he knows. Mom was normal, but Dad...I don't know if we're human and can die. I don't know anything anymore."

Al began crying again and Gibbs immediately wrapped his arms around Al again, this time rocking him from side to side, making gentle shushing noises.

Al slowly pushed himself away from Gibbs and forced himself to continue, "H-he said...he said his soul was rotting and his body was dying because it - his soul, the Stone didn't have the energy to maintain a body anymore.

"I...his Philosopher's Stone was getting used up. Every time he did alchemy, it got smaller and smaller. Like when I was the Stone. I could tell. Dante tried to use me and Shou Tucker tried to use me - and every time they did, my armor wore away - big holes where my...my soul had been!"

Al clapped his hand over his mouth as the sobs kept coming, his terror mounting as everything he hadn't let himself feel since he'd become the Stone came crashing down on him. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe.

Gibbs took Al back into his arms, running his hands over Al's hair and rubbing circles in his back as his feelings rode themselves out. Al was squirming now, gasping for breath as he apparently tried to reach behind himself.

"What's up?" Gibbs asked as calmly as he could.

"My blood seal," Al whimpered, wiggling even harder. "I need to see my blood seal!"

Gibbs blinked, frowning, "Al - you're in a - well, you're not in your armor anymore. Why would you - "

But Al shoved himself out of Gibbs' arms and took off running. Gibbs followed quickly, finding Al in the bathroom, having ripped the shirt off and standing once again on the stool in front of the sink that Elysia had once used to brush her teeth.

He was staring, transfixed, at his bare back and it was only seconds before Gibbs could see exactly why. On Al's back, near his neck, was the pale impression of a transmutation circle. A wound carved into his skin long ago, now healed into a large keloid and clearly visible.

"Oh, my God," Gibbs heard himself mutter, at a loss for what to say for the first time in years.

Al turned to face him, his hands white from gripping the sink so hard, his eyes wide and frightened. Gibbs determinedly frowned and walked slowly over to Al before scooping the boy back up into his arms. He didn't speak again until they were back in Ed and Al's bedroom, seated once more on Al's bed, this time with Al's arms wrapped around his legs as he struggled not to cry again.

Gibbs decided to let him make his own choice regarding his emotions, instead simply asking, "What did your dad tell you about the Gate?"

Al flinched but then a sense of focus seemed to come over him. "He said...basically, when we give something up, we get something in return and it might not be what we wanted or expected, but it's there. I - Ed wanted my body back but I wanted his arm and leg that Wrath took. That was all I was trying for. All we were trying for - "

Al bit his lip, remembering when the Gate opened and ripped Ed's arm and leg off of Wrath and how the young homunculus - Teacher's son - screamed and cried. Dante had taunted him but Envy's only concern had been that the Gate had remained later on. And then Ed had come out of it.

"We only wanted to get things back the way they were - ourselves. We knew we couldn't Mom back and we weren't stupid enough to try again. I used the rest of my body to give Ed his life back and fix his. But then Ed used his whole body to give me mine. I...I'm confused. I lost my memory as a result of Ed's transmutation and then got them back when we came back to this side...but right before - "

Al straightened, his eyes wide as he turned and stared at Gibbs again. "Right before - when we were fighting Eckard, I attached parts of my soul to a whole bunch of the suits of armor I think my dad developed on this side of the Gate...But...the armor down in the morgue...Mrs. H - Gibbs and Elysia came out of it. The armor I transmuted to come back with Ed...it wasn't that one. It was designed like my old armor.

"The one in Ducky's morgue was one of the ones the Thule Society designed, I think. So...so does that mean that somehow my old - my first armor, since it became my soul, has been inside me all this time and we...am I my first armor? My blood seal was in the back of it, like this scar is on my back now."

Al's eyes were wider than ever and he stared at Gibbs, wishing for an answer Gibbs didn't know how to give. Gibbs frowned at himself, making fists on his knees.

"I don't know. I'd give almost anything to answer your question, Al, but I honestly don't know." Gibbs looked over at where Ed had finally stopped shivering and sweating, now still under the sheet he'd been given by Al at some point.

"Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure your brother's the only person who can answer that for you since he's the one you've gone through all of this with."

"Or Elysia," Al said softly and Gibbs gave him a look. Al elaborated, not wanting to get smacked for anything. "She spent even more time in the Gate than I did. I don't know what she knows anymore than I do what Brother does. All three of us need to talk, but they're both asleep."

Gibbs wanted to object, saying Elysia was only six - what could she possibly tell them, but he knew better. Frowning bitterly at not knowing his little girl at all anymore, he nodded and finally decided to carry out his earlier plan, if only to relieve his frustration.

Frowning deeply, Gibbs concentrated on unloading his gun and setting the clip far away from either himself or Al, and then pulled out his switchblade and flicked it open, not speaking for the next half an hour as he painstakingly carved Roy's transmutation circle into the pommel on both sides.

His expression flat and angry, Gibbs brushed the shavings onto his shirt and got up to dump them into the trash can. Dropping himself back down onto the bed, he meticulously dissembled, cleaned, and reloaded the gun, ignoring the flashes in his head of Roy watching Riza do the same a thousand times or more.

Placing it carefully back into his holster, Gibbs turned and blinked at Al, who had gathered himself at the head of his bed, his hazel eyes wide in fear.

Kicking himself hard inside, Gibbs raised both his hands and pointedly softened his voice, "I'm not angry with you. Circumstances beyond my control. I'll let you know I don't do well with those. I'm sure you'll hear Gracia chastise me about my lack of patience, my dad did the same when I was a kid. I know I leave people walking on eggshells around me and..."

What could Gibbs do, lie? Half the time, it was exactly what he wanted. More than half, actually. "Just know, I'll never want anything but for you and Ed to be safe. To keep you safe. And for that to be my job."

Al forced himself to relax, remembering how at ease both Mrs. Gibbs and Elysia were with Gibbs. He knew. And so he nodded.

...TBC...


End file.
